Lambent Ashes
by CrimsonEos
Summary: A collection of oneshots and ficlets concerning the lives of those with connections to the darkness. /4/ The three of them together make a trio. /5/ Any good alchemist knows there are seven stages to a cycle.
1. Understanding

**1** - Fujiwara – Understanding

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh! DM GX._

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Fujiwara knew that he would find Fubuki sitting at the base of the lighthouse, just as he always would on every evening, regardless of the weather. Gold and pink filaments shot the lavender sky as the sun lazed uncertainly over the horizon. 

Joining Fubuki was a relatively pleasant matter, requiring only that he sit down next to the boy and return his warm greeting with a quicksilver wave and a short smile. They began talking about all manner of things, just like two freshmen boys would be expected to do. It is only the content of their conversations—duel strategy, Platonic philosophy in the twenty-first century, and soda pop—which seems abnormal. Finally the tide of conversation turns to the personalities of the two boys, and that is when Fujiwara plasters on the compliments.

"You know, Fubuki, I really look up to you. You're an amazing guy, so popular and kind. You can get any female you want and yet you still hang out with people like me. I'm lucky."

"No! I'm lucky to have you as a friend. You're a special guy, Fujiwara. You're stillness always helps to put my mind at ease after a rough day."

"Stillness?"

"Yeah. There is a certain stillness in your intelligence. Everyone is so frivolous, but you are concerned about a set of topics and that's it."

"Fubuki . . ."

"Hey, don't look down like that! Keep your eyes to the sky instead."

"Yeah . . . I think that I'll do that. Thanks."

"Hey, no problem! That's what friend do for each other. I've got your back, just as I am sure you've got mine."

And that was the problem with Fubuki. He never doubted other human beings. Wait, why had Fujiwara come to talk on this evening?

"Fubuki, what do you think about the incident today . . . ? I mean, I just don't understand how people can be so cruel."

"Well, that's the thing with popular kids. People naturally want to protect their own, so when the popular kids do it, it almost seems like clique violence. But they're just doing what comes natural."

"Do you protect you own?"

". . . I like to think that I do. I mean, I love my baby sister dearly, and I try to stand up for my friends."

"You stood up for me."

"Yes, I did, didn't I?"

"Thank you . . . Fubuki, for doing that. No one else has fought on my behalf before."

"You're very welcome. It's the least I can do for a friend."

Fujiwara knows that Fubuki is not gloating when he says this. The least he can do . . . Just a simple sacrifice for others; Fujiwara just doesn't understand why or how it can be this simple for Fubuki.

Human hearts are the epitome of darkness, and therefor all human intentions are essentially dark.

But Fubuki does not follow this paradigm.

Why, Fubuki, do you drag yourself down with the burden of others? Why leave an avenue for the darkness and then not exploit it?

Fujiwara thinks that he may never understand it because, quite frankly, he can't.


	2. Fugitive

**2** _- _Fubuki's Notes – Fugitive

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! DM GX._

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_Darkness— a strange thing that man has thought and wondered about for thousands of years._

_Is it palpable? Is it sublime? Or is a concept, say nothingness? Or is it wholeness? _

_Take for example the colours white and black, which are not really colours at all. Black— when something absorbs most light despite wavelength. White— when something absorbs no light at all and reflects all wavelengths. Now, people are said to be light, and light and darkness are classically divided into good and evil respectively. And who can blame them? Which would you rather be, included without prejudice for enemies and foes or excluded with everyone else? Of course humans will lie for face value and say that they wish to be part of a cohesive group. But if only they could see that all of us are like that, that we all prefer to stick to our own when it comes down to it._

_White is pure and lonely, but black is dirty and crowded. _

_Solitude over noise, peace over calamity. _

_But in the darkness one can find calm. If we were to all bear one burden we would all be equal. Thoughts of animosity would be lost over time and differences would soon follow. Imagine, if we were all to live in blinding and soothing darkness, one day we would have no need for words like "hate" and "difference." Instead there would be calm silence. _

_Yet this is not how it is suppose to be. Part of the basic right of man is the struggle for existence. That is, the right to struggle to improve your lot in life. Chaos and strife arise from these desires, but so does beautiful things like love and companionship. All of us have our daily battles, and it is through these battles that we relate. So, if struggling is dark, then darkness must be chaotic unity. But which is it? _

_Is darkness calm or churning?_

"Fubuki . . . " Asuka's whisper was a small and harsh sound as she struggled to keep her hands from outright trembling. With the papers written in her brother's careless hand clutched to her chest, she stood up and looked out over the turbulent ocean below. On the horizon sat a pregnant sun unsure of whether to sink or rise.

Her brother had been gone for two months and counting. How cruel the indifferent march of time had become. "Fubuki . . . Is this a clue? What in the world could you have been doing in that shady dorm that involved such things?"

She wondered about her brother, concern blossoming in her breast like it had three times earlier that day. Her breathing shallowed and it became that much harder for her diaphragm to work.

These cryptic writings found in his bedroom cast such an ominous light over the mystery of her brother's disappearance that Asuka found them hard to accept. Every day this whole thing was becoming more and more like a bad soap opera. The dorm being shut down, her brother missing with those other students . . .

Never would she guess that her brother was grasping at the essence of humanity.


	3. Honesty

**3** - Fujiwara and Fubuki — Honesty

**Disclaimer:** _I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! DM GX._

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Gazing out at the iron-grey ocean, Fujiwara fingered a single Duel Monster card reverently. The card in question, Honest, had been bequeathed to him by his friends Fubuki Tenjoin and Ryo Marufuji on his seventeenth birthday. The two of them—though it had really been just Fubuki doing the explaining—had obtained the card especially for him, as they saw him as a good-hearted friend. His character was pure, just like the angel pictured in the card art. Fujiwara, like Honest, may not have been the strongest, but when combined with his friends he made a formidable force. 

Grey eyes ran over the card once more. Him, pure as an angel? His friends . . . They did not truly understand him in that case.

Fujiwara added the card to a deck box attached to his belt. Looking at the angelic man was becoming harder and harder for him as he progressed in his "project." He had never been one for the occult and had rather always prided himself on being a grounded genius. But as he had fallen deeper into his research, he had found connections between the power of Duel Monsters and they way they responded to the human heart. There was a vast network of lines and branches that existed. All of them seemed to originate from one point, and as Fujiwara's research yielded more information, the more he saw that this place was not necessarily of this world. Rather, a place of darkness. But this place—another dimension perhaps—seemed to be full; there was not a lack of life.

Imagine the power that this place must possess! And the deeper he dug the more he wanted this supposed power for himself to harness for his own means. The human world was ugly, full of division and strife. If he could but fill the cracks with this power, surely something beautiful would emerge. Because there is beauty in fullness, he thought.

But he could not help but feel guilty dragging his Duel Monsters into this place, for it was a place where these creatures did not exist. Who the denizens of the darkness were he could not say, but he was sure that they were not Duel Monsters.

So he would have to leave his partners behind lest they ended up damaged. After all, this was his calling. If anyone was to be hurt, let the explorer be the one to suffer; he would be the sacrifice to change the world.

"My dear partner . . . It's not that I don't trust or care for you. Rather, I care too much. What to do . . . It must be an exchange of power, I suppose."

"Who're you talking to, Yuusuke-kun?" Fubuki asked, a sudden intruder.

For Fujiwara, collecting himself was easy enough. It was the stress of lying to his friend that swelled in his chest. "Just going over my kana tables. Ahaha. 'A,' 'E,' 'O,' 'I,' 'U,' . . ."

"Right. Always studying!" Fubuki slapped Fujiwara's back in a display of dramatic fraternal affection. Fujiwara resisted the urge to rub the burning on his left shoulder.

He wondered if perhaps he could tell Fubuki about his plan. Could he perhaps leave Honest in his care? But what would Fubuki say when he was given back a gift to watch over? Could this man, despite his good intentions, really understand the plans Fujiwara had?

No, because he believed in human goodness or something along those lines. The good of humanity? Human purity . . . ?

So, being the honest soul that he was, Fujiwara crossed his arms and nodded. "Yep, I always study hard. I have to keep my mind sharp so I might stick around here another day."

"You make it sound like Duel Academia would kick you out for slacking!"

"Oh, it's not a question of the school."

"Then what?"

"Well, there's a big project I am working on outside of school. If I don't keep on my toes, then it might get the better of me."

"Oh, I see. Hey, did you hear about what happened to Junko today in class? Someone forged a love note and slipped it to her during lecture."

And just like that the topic of Fujiwara's project coasted by.


	4. Trinity

_**4 **– Yuusuke, Fubuki, Ryo – Trinity_

_**Disclaimer: **I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! DM GX._

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The three of them are known by all as the grand trio, replete in both male beauty and dueling skill. Top students in all regards save citizenship, but Fubuki possesses enough social grace to compensate for both Ryo and Yuusuke several times over. 

So aesthetic are the three that rumors of homosexuality abound. Ryo remains indifferent (though secretly he is amused), Yuusuke flushes in private (but smiles knowingly in public), while Fubuki is Fubuki by not outright denying the claims but rather hints that there may be something more than platonic friendship for the sake of feminine blushes and hushed giggles. Yuusuke wonders about Fubuki, but Ryo tells him to just let Fubuki proceed as he wishes; he may flit above the clamoring crowd for fun but he knows at what point to stop lest he becomes too involved.

They stand near the base of the lighthouse as they always do to chat away the time not filled with homework, scholastic activitibes, or Fubuki's social romps.

"Fubuki-kun, how is it that you manage to balance school with social activities?" Yuusuke asks.

Ryo casts his gaze out over the repetitive waves. They conform to a pattern and look like a million other waves, but their sight is calming.

"Well, it's all about time management," Fubuki explains as though he were an expert on the subject (and he probably is). His smile is coy and confident.

"I know that. But my problem is that there is a shortage of time to manage. Would you please tell me your secret?"

"Well, I find a healthy balance. I can't deny my fans the right to be graced by the presence of the Fubu-King."

"You're starting a circle, Fubuki-kun. Now what about your academics? How do you manage them?"

"As long as there is a will there is indeed a way."

"Such things . . . I'm being serious, Fubuki-kun. Please tell me," Yuusuke says, and his tone is vaguely supplicating.

"As am I," Fubuki replies, slightly frustrated now. "I wouldn't be light on topics like this."

"He really does have good time-management skills. He always finishes tests on time, no matter how extensive," Ryo explains, using more words than he usually uses when conversing with a teacher.

The interjection takes Yuusuke by surprise, but he collects himself easily enough to say "is that right? Alright, Fubuki-kun, will have to help me manage my schedule."

"Of course! Though it might be a problem that I don't know your life as well as you do, but I'll do my best to find social time for you. With my gentle guidance, we shall multiply your popularity."

Yuusuke imagines what Fubuki will do to his life, and he thinks that he may regret his hasty decision. The parties and late nights . . . "Oh, uh . . . I need time to finish homework, though. And work on . . . projects."

"That won't do. You need time to spent with your fans and followers. Even challengers and copiers deserve some face time."

"But I spend so much time with you two already."

"You lack fangirls because you don't invest enough time in nonacademic activities," Fubuki explains, his eyes sparkling with a certain passion, the burning desire to help his friend. "But we'll change that now that I have been entrusted with your precious schedule!"

"Ah, no. I . . . I will talk to a counselor. Really, Fubuki-kun."

"Well, have it your way then," Fubuki says with a shrug of his shoulders. He is disappointed, but for some strange reasons he understands that his help is not wanted.

Ryo, having been a good shadow until now, breaks in with "Fubuki-san, have you got today's alchemy notes?"

"Yeah, of course. Daitokuji-sensei asked me to give you the homework, too."

"At your dorm?"

"Yeah."

"I'll get it from you later."

Fubuki smiles, his eyes closing and then opening. Yuusuke watches the two of them, something profound charges the air. Their private exchange becomes as palpable as two boys standing next to him. The sun is skims the horizon now, flecks of glowing gold and resplendent pink bejeweling the undersides of the dulling clouds. Several stars begin to twinkle shyly.

"Say, Ryo, how's your extra credit doing?" Fubuki asks to drag the conversation back up to the surface.

A sliver of a frown breaks Ryo's countenance, conveying rare emotion.

"Your charges do not count as class credit," Ryo says coolly.

"What extra credit?" Yuusuke interrupts. He is rightly curious, though he should have figured what was about to come next.

"Fubuki-san gets a kick out of assigning me extra credit assignments for chemistry," Ryo says. He is rather insouciant, close to droning.

Yuusuke is, indeed, truly lost.

Fubuki notes Yuusuke bemused stare. "Aww, Yuusuke, you should know this! How I have failed my disciples!"

Overwhelmed by Fukubi's histrionic display of arm waving, Yuusuke recoils. His eyes widen, gray irises broadening. Then Fubuki calms down and flaunts his impeccable teeth with a gallant smile.

"I really have failed you; I can't help you manage your time or master the lexicon of love. I'm a horrible teacher."

"You're not a failure, Fubuki-kun. I'm just a horrible student." As soon as the words drop from his mouth all three of them know how transparent his excuse is.

"But you're the best student in Duel Academia," Fubuki states simply. He animates his hand, whips up his pointer finger and holds it above his head. "I may be a failure, but I will not give up! I, Tenjoin Fubuki the Blizzard Prince, shall transmute Fujiwara Yuusuke into a heartthrob!"

"Fubuki, really . . . there is no need."

"But I insist! I do it for you as a friend."

"Fubuki, I . . . Then why don't you do this for Ryo? He will appreciate it more than I ever will able to."

"He does," Ryo adds smoothly, nonchalant.

"Only the best for me dear friends," Fubuki carols.

"Fubuki . . ."

And among them Yuusuke feels that he can belong---that he _does_ belong.

Fubuki, Ryo, and Yuusuke . . . the three of them make an interesting trio. Fubuki the dazzling social firefly, Yuusuke the awkward but genial genius, and Ryo the silent well of strength. They are known throughout the school as the florid and glorious trinity and they know it well; even without a fan club they would know it. The three of them---Fubuki, Ryo, and Yuusuke---are a good trio.

But then Yuusuke disappears and Fubuki and Ryo become a pair. They are still buoyant with Fubuki's social aplomb, however. And then Fubuki disappears and displaces Ryo, leaves him to become a tacit genius with a tendency for solitude.

Maybe Ryo should have done Fubuki's extra credit assignments, but he knows it is too late to regret it, and it wouldn't even be worth the stress anyway. He will befriend Fubuki's pneumatic sister instead. It 's for Fubuki's, Asuka's, and his sake, Ryo reasons.

And it is the best he can do on his own, after all.


	5. Solve et Coagula

_5. Daitokuji, Yuusuke, Fubuki, Ryo -- Solve et Coagula_

**Disclaimer: **_No ownage of anything here._

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1.

It is when Daitokuji first sees the new students that he knows the cycle is coming to its climax. He looks at the boy and just knows it is he who will be the herald of the climax. The last time he has sensed such potential was exactly six years and seven months ago.

And just as he predicted Fujiwara Yuusuke is his top student. The boy concentrates on his lectures in a way that thrills his inner teacher (but means most to the part of him that is making the plans.) The boy knows the Emerald Tablet and dozens of Hermantic texts by heart. He understands how vital fusion is to a duel, and that through tempering and refining any monster can become useful.

2.

During a lecture on symbols Daitokuji begins to notice that something is wrong. "Symbols are a grand reflection of the nature of things, of how the planes of existence mirror and connect with one another. For if something is a symbol of something, the two things are related by an essential truth. The sun and gold, the moon and silver, completeness and a circle," he says as he paces around the dias. It is not the first time that Yuusuke is the only one taking notes, but Daitokuji knows that Yuusuke is not scribbling down a transcription of his lecture.

Doubling back on the dias, Daitokuji approches his podium and shuffles his papers around. He finds what he needs and gives Pharoah a quick pet before walking towards the front of students.

"There are many symbols for the nature of the world, for there are many truths to be found in it. The Divine Act is represented by a spiral, as you know, and it continues in a neverending cycle of climaxes and falls--rolling and unrolling. _Solve et coagula_. Represented by a double spiral." Here he holds up a diagram to show the class. Some people do not look, some nod their head, some look bored, and Fujiwara continues to focus on his writing.

"The spiral is also symbolic of a struggle. Eventually a point will be reached, and things that are scattered will eventually be gathered back together."

3.

After class Fubuki asks Yuusuke for his notes and refuses to believe that he has misplaced them.

"Nonsense! You're too good of a student," Fubuki teases as they make their way down some stairs.

Yuusuke stops dead and casts his gaze at the steel railing. "D-do you really think so? Because I really did loss those notes. I must have dropped them on my way to the rest room."

"Yeah, and I passed my physics test."

Later Ryo (who is sent by Fubuki and Yuusuke knows it) asks Yuuske for his notes from the day's class, only to be told that they were dropped into alatrine. Ryo knows it is a lie, but is too tactful to say so.

4.

The next hint is during another lecture two weeks later. A student asks Yuuske why he takes such care to copy down every word Daitokuji-sensei says. Yuusuke replies that he does not want to forget a single bit of information.

"But you don't have to remember every word, Fujiwara-kun."

"And how do you know that? Even one missing bit can make it all collapse. No--can make everything else null and void and utterly useless!"

The student apologises for even asking, not sure what had just happened.

5.

Fubuki, Ryo, and Yuusuke sit at the base of one of the great marble statues residing in the Obelisk Blue dormitory. The wind rushes against the building and the wind sings a derg for the plants that are uprooted and flung into the turbulent ocean.

They say nothing, but silence has still forgotten how to exist nonetheless.

Yuusuke finally cracks, yelling at the storm to cease--he just cannot take another moment of it--so that he may hear the spirits once again...Because he just cannot have forgotten how to talk to Honest.

6.

Pharoah watches a student for a time, only moves on to the next one when he is satisfied that the child is not up to any trouble.

"And as it, alchemists are like gods. To create, to be creative--these are characteristics of a diety," Daitokuji says to his class. He turns around for a moment, then turns back to address his students. "But there is one vital thing that you must remember about this power of creation--compassion is needed. Love is present throughout out all of design, care and thought and good will. Without compassion the ego will try to mirror itself in all that you do. Fusion is a great power, but you must use it with compassion--remember this, and it will never consume you, neither your work or your own desires that, as an alchemist, you have worked to purge from your soul."

Daitokuji scans the faces of his students and stops at Yuusuke. Over the past few months the boy's eyes have become ringed with black. He is shaking, but everything else on the outside appears normal.

There are only five weeks left before the seven years are over Daitokuji knows, and counts down to the moment in the back of his mind.

The preparation has begun, has been going now for quite a time.

7.

If there is anything Daitokuji has for his students it is concern. So when Yuusuke disappears it is no wonder why he is part of the search effort, even if it disbands after a few hours of fruitless searching. The rest of the island's population adds him to the growing list of those missing and then set about their own business.

Fubuki refuses to give up--to forget about Yuusuke-- so heads his own exploration team and calls it a team even though it is just Ryo and him. And soon enough his team is made up of only Ryo, so that the stoic boy is left to look for both of his friends as he waits out the rest of his school year. Ryo ends up passing the year with the highest honors, but it is a hollow thing (that he can entomb himself in) because Fubuki and Yuusuke are not on that stage with him.

Daitokuji feels that he is the one responsible for Ryo's pain, but he has caused so much pain over the course of his life that he has come to just accept it as part of the divine law of Equivalent Exchange. The _uroboros_ eats its own tail to continue the cycle, so what is a little pain caused to a boy to as he continues with his grand work? (Though the boy is his student, so Equivalent Exchange still has its say.)

In the end he is wrong about Yuusuke, but not completely wrong because there is no such thing as absolutes in the world, the boy was not the herald of the climax of his work, but probably is the climax. So he tries to wash himself to renew himself and prepare himself for the next climax.

And then one night he figures that maybe the cycle really had not ended--that he had met the boy five years and seven months before he met Yuusuke. So he does the math and ultimately decides that he has somehow made a miscalculation. His climax is coming now, he knows, and it is heralded by one of his new students.


End file.
